Winner, Portraiture. "Solar Portraits in Myanmar" Construction workers dig a household latrine in Pa Dan Kho Village, Kayah State. Myanmar sits at the intersection of China, India, and the ten ASEAN nations, an area home to almost half the world’s population and some of its fastest-growing economies. But despite its neighbor's successes, Myanmar lags badly behind. Just 26% of the country’s population has access to the electrical grid, at least half of whom live in cities. In rural areas, infrastructure is extremely primitive: of the estimated 68,000 villages in Myanmar, just 3,000 or so have any sort of access to power. In the 1990s, the ruling junta invited its neighbors to develop hydro-power projects in around the country, with most of the electricity produced earmarked for export. Today, overhead wires transporting power to Myanmar’s booming neighbors cast a shadow over thousands of un-electrified villages, which have seen no benefit from the export windfall earned by the government. In a country where almost all rural labor is still un-mechanized, candles - which are both expensive and dangerous - are the only source of light available once the sun sets. As building the requisite infrastructure to connect remote, rural villages to the grid will take a long time, solar energy is a viable and much-needed solution that has the potential to improve the lives of millions immediately. Small, inexpensive photovoltaic power (PV) systems can provide households with at least 12 hours of light during the night, allowing people to do more with their waking hours at no additional cost. These portraits depict the lives of inhabitants of remote areas of Myanmar who, for the first time have access to electricity through the power of solar energy.
© Ruben Salgado Escudero/Sony World Photography Awards
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